Hilton Hotels has a robot concierge that just wants to help

Connie is friendly, affable even, but a little stiff. She stands at the Hilton Hotel’s front desk in McLean Virginia and, for the most part, gazes out blankly into the distance. Until, that is, someone approaches her and says, “Hi Connie,” then she looks in your direction and her eyes subtly changing color to let you know she’s paying attention.

Connie is Hilton Hotels' first robot concierge.

Named for the hotel’s chain’s founder Conrad Hilton, Connie is a two-and-a-half-foot tall Aldebaran Nao robot stuffed full of IBM Watson and WayBlazer intelligence. The result is an all-hardware front-desk clerk who can answer dozens of routine questions that normally take up valuable front-desk time. Read more...